UK Bans TikTok on Government Gadgets, as US Pushes for the App to Separate from Chinese Ownership

After initially resisting calls to ban TikTok from authorities gadgets, the UK Government has now modified course, and introduced an instantaneous ban of the Chinese-owned app on all Government worker telephones.

The announcement brings TikTok into line with the EU, which enacted a ban of TikTok on Government gadgets last month, whereas the majority of US states have now additionally banned the app from Government-owned phones.

As reported by The Guardian:

“The UK choice follows a evaluation of TikTok by authorities cybersecurity specialists that started in November, and can cowl ministers’ and civil servants’ work telephones, however not their private telephones. [Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden says] this can be a ‘proportionate transfer primarily based on a particular danger with authorities gadgets’.”

Amid rising international tensions, considerations round the Chinese-owned app, and the potential for it to be used as a spying machine, have develop into extra urgent, with many cybersecurity specialists warning that TikTok could possibly be used to monitor citizen actions, and monitor consumer exercise.

And people reviews do have precedent.

Late final yr, it was revealed that representatives from TikTok’s mother or father firm ByteDance had used TikTok information to track the movements of US journalists, in a bid to uncover which ByteDance workers could also be leaking information to the press.

That is the key concern round the misuse of TikTok information, and on this context, the expanding bans of the app on government-owned devices is sensible, as that could possibly be used as a vector to monitor folks’s actions, and monitor who they’re assembly with.

For presidency workers, who could also be in possession of delicate data, there’s a stage of danger right here, so it does make sense for officers to be elevating the alarm, and taking motion on this circumstance.

The query then is whether or not the TikTok bans must be expanded to all customers, as is at present into account in the US. The newest on that entrance is that the White Home is reportedly pressuring TikTok to be sold off from its Chinese owners if it desires to preserve working in the area.

That’s virtually precisely what former President Donald Trump proposed back in 2020, which practically noticed TikTok bought to a consortium led by Oracle, earlier than the incoming Biden Administration abandoned those plans.

Now, it appears TikTok is being compelled to re-examine comparable choices – although it’s price noting that any sale of TikTok, as a Chinese asset, would additionally require approval from the Chinese Government, which has repeatedly expressed its disapproval of the numerous bans of the app.

TikTok, too, continues to voice its opposition to these actions. On the UK ban, a TikTok spokesperson said:

“We imagine these bans have been primarily based on basic misconceptions and pushed by wider geopolitics, by which TikTok, and our thousands and thousands of customers in the UK, play no half. We stay dedicated to working with the authorities to deal with any considerations.”

Which, in fact, is the response you may anticipate, however it’s attention-grabbing to see TikTok making reference to geopolitical tensions, and invoking nationalistic fears, as a method to oppose the increasing bans.

Look, proper now, there doesn’t appear to be a transparent case for a full TikTok ban, as there wasn’t when the US initially proposed a ban beneath Trump in 2020. However that doesn’t imply that it gained’t occur – and actually, it appears like we’re very, very shut to the edge on this, amid accusations of spying and worldwide interference on a number of fronts.   

The proposal to power TikTok right into a sell-off, if the US Government does press this, might probably safe billions in income for the firm, and that looks as if an excessive amount of to go away behind for TikTok, if it comes down to it.

However once more, the Chinese Government might look to make an announcement as an alternative, and resist western bullying.

In essence, it possible will come down to geopolitical tensions, a technique or one other, and people tensions do appear to be sporting skinny proper now.